I’ve been using my Apple Watch Ultra since launch day and was surprised that using the Action Button actually made me miss the long gone Force Touch.
Why I Like the Action Button
First, the new quick action afforded by the button is great. Everyone has that one thing that they love to do on their Apple Watch. For me, it’s the stopwatch. I used to have the stopwatch as a complication. So it took 2 taps to get it going.
Call me crazy, but I like to time notoriously long stoplights at busy intersections. It somehow seems less stressful to me to be able to predict when it’s going to turn green. And if you do it enough, you’ll get to the point where you know how long all the lights around your house are going to take. Plus, I never want to be that guy who is still looking at his phone when the light turns green infuriating everyone behind him.
The Action Button Can Also be Annoying
But as good as the Action Button is, it can also be quite annoying. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve looked down at my watchand find that my stopwatch is going. That’s because it’s quite easy to accidentally press that big button on the side. Also, I often accidentally press it when trying to push my crown or power button. My hand instinctively wants to squeeze the watch body with my index finger on the right side and my thumb on the left. Well guess where my thumb usually presses? Yup, the lower left corner which is right by the Action Button.
The more I use my Action Button, the more I miss Force Touch. Why? Because never once in all the years that I had an Apple Watch with Force Touch did I ever accidentally trigger it. You never push down on your screen unintentionally. If your finger is pushing down on your screen it’s because you intend to.
I’d actually prefer getting rid of the Action Button and setting Force Touch as a permanent button that did one thing. You could get all of the benefits of the Action Button without any of the downside. And added bonus, the watch would look nicer. The unbroken finish of the watch casing is free to reflect light and show off its color. That is why the speaker on the older watches is designed to be hidden. On the Ultra, the speaker hole design and button placement is an interruption which detracts from the finish.
First, the new quick action afforded by the button is great. Everyone has that one thing that they love to do on their Apple Watch. For me, it’s the stopwatch. I used to have the stopwatch as a complication. So it took 2 taps to get it going.
Call me crazy, but I like to time notoriously long stoplights at busy intersections. It somehow seems less stressful to me to be able to predict when it’s going to turn green. And if you do it enough, you’ll get to the point where you know how long all the lights around your house are going to take. Plus, I never want to be that guy who is still looking at his phone when the light turns green infuriating everyone behind him.
The Action Button Can Also be Annoying
But as good as the Action Button is, it can also be quite annoying. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve looked down at my watchand find that my stopwatch is going. That’s because it’s quite easy to accidentally press that big button on the side. Also, I often accidentally press it when trying to push my crown or power button. My hand instinctively wants to squeeze the watch body with my index finger on the right side and my thumb on the left. Well guess where my thumb usually presses? Yup, the lower left corner which is right by the Action Button.
The more I use my Action Button, the more I miss Force Touch. Why? Because never once in all the years that I had an Apple Watch with Force Touch did I ever accidentally trigger it. You never push down on your screen unintentionally. If your finger is pushing down on your screen it’s because you intend to.
I’d actually prefer getting rid of the Action Button and setting Force Touch as a permanent button that did one thing. You could get all of the benefits of the Action Button without any of the downside. And added bonus, the watch would look nicer. The unbroken finish of the watch casing is free to reflect light and show off its color. That is why the speaker on the older watches is designed to be hidden. On the Ultra, the speaker hole design and button placement is an interruption which detracts from the finish.
Why Did Force Touch Fail?
So if Force Touch was so great why did Apple kill it? It’s due to the way it was designed. Force Touch used to morph depending on what App was open. And every developer could assign it a unique action. There was never any consistency to it.
I actually didn’t mind the way it was designed. I always thought of it as something like a right-click on a Windows PC. But most people either didn’t know it existed or never used it because they were perpetually confused by what it did.
Why Would a Force Touch Action Button Be Any Different?
I think if Apple brought Force Touch back and designed it like a virtual Action Button that people would finally embrace it. Because the ambiguity of what it did would be gone. As I mentioned earlier, everyone has that “one thing” that they like to do with their watch. And they don’t like to hunt through menus to do it.
The action button is great because you bypass all menus or opening of apps. But Force Touch could basically match this feat. In fact, since the whole screen becomes a giant button, I’d argue it may even be easier and quicker.
So if Force Touch was so great why did Apple kill it? It’s due to the way it was designed. Force Touch used to morph depending on what App was open. And every developer could assign it a unique action. There was never any consistency to it.
I actually didn’t mind the way it was designed. I always thought of it as something like a right-click on a Windows PC. But most people either didn’t know it existed or never used it because they were perpetually confused by what it did.
Why Would a Force Touch Action Button Be Any Different?
I think if Apple brought Force Touch back and designed it like a virtual Action Button that people would finally embrace it. Because the ambiguity of what it did would be gone. As I mentioned earlier, everyone has that “one thing” that they like to do with their watch. And they don’t like to hunt through menus to do it.
The action button is great because you bypass all menus or opening of apps. But Force Touch could basically match this feat. In fact, since the whole screen becomes a giant button, I’d argue it may even be easier and quicker.
RSS Feed